Are you planning a big trip such as a world tour or planning to visit several countries and wondering how, potentially, you can reduce the phone bills that will follow? This article about using an international SIM card is for you. You can visit
SimOptions if you want to learn more about international prepaid SIM cards. However, if the only trip you're planning is the one that will take you from your couch to the fridge or from your bed to work via the subway, you can go your own way.
Some questions you have about the usefulness of an international SIM card and that I have also asked myself:
Why an international SIM card when there's Wi-Fi?
Yes with internet via WIFI you can communicate easily using various applications such as skype, file, whatsapp, messenger, mail or even sending messages via snapchat. Yes, it doesn't cost anything to communicate through this way because it's free BUT you need to have an internet connection to have wifi. A correct wifi otherwise it does not pass unfortunately. However, the problem when you travel is that where you have a network you do not necessarily have access to an internet box with wifi that follows you like a good little obedient dog.
It is not necessarily possible to predict when you will have access to the internet or to match it with your interlocutor if he also wants to communicate via wifi only. With the time difference, the contrasts of schedule, the quality of transmission, it is not necessarily possible to make the call when you will be sure to have access to Wifi. Wifi IS undeniably a solution to communicate but, in view of my bills outside the package, it is not THE solution because you will always need, sooner or later, to call or be reached without a quality WIFI connection nearby.
In absolute terms, what's the point of having a "smart" phone if you yourself are not smart enough to be reachable at all times.
Why use an international SIM card when i can use a local SIM card?
A local SIM card, when you have unlocked your smartphone beforehand, is a very good solution indeed. I absolutely do not deny it, I did it. I'm not a machine so I don't know the rates by heart of all the operators, all the promotional offers, there are local sim card rates that are very attractive (probably better on some destinations than the international SIM card) but there are, in my opinion, some limitations.
First of all, they are local so you have to get the local SIM card on the spot. In addition, although the tariffs are very attractive locally, the tariffs of a local SIM are not necessarily attractive internationally. However, although I sometimes exchange my number with locals to continue our correspondence, this does not correspond to my main use. My calls and exchanges are more with those who have stayed at home or are currently in other countries. International communications therefore.
Second point, the information and the sharing of this information: your telephone number. Each time you take a local SIM card, it's a new number (I find it annoying when you change operator and don't carry your old number...). A new number that you have to communicate to all the people who want to reach you, including the local contacts on your old SIM cards... unless, of course, this exchange of numbers on your local SIM card was just a decoy to make them believe that you wanted to talk to them when this is not the case.
The problem of tracking your contacts: if they themselves travel, which is the case for some of my acquaintances, it quickly becomes a big mess, I tell you, since some of your contacts, including you, potentially change their phone number several times a year. It's difficult if, like me, you also make professional use of your number on the road. I already have trouble remembering my number, it is impossible for me to remember it if I had to change it every 4 mornings. I'm someone who likes simplicity and sincerely, maybe I'll pay more with a single card than this local Chilean card if I'm in Chile but I won't have to worry too much about providing my number to the plethora of personal and professional contacts who might call me.